Tia Levings knows the reality behind the carefully curated image of the “trad wife.” In this conversation, she joins me to talk about Christian fundamentalism, religious trauma, and the evolution of traditional wife culture—from the Duggars and the early days of blogging to today’s highly polished world of Ballerina Farm.

Rather than retelling the story of her memoir A Well-Trained Wife, we go deeper into the questions her story raises: Why are some people more vulnerable to high-control environments than others? Why can siblings raised in the same family have such different experiences? And what should parents look for when a child is becoming vulnerable to an ideology that asks them to surrender their own judgment?

We talk about Yesteryear, the trad wife phenomenon, and what happens when an ideology becomes beautiful, aspirational, and Instagram-ready. Tia reflects on her own years as a blogger and the complicated question of whether she helped make a particular version of domestic femininity look desirable.

We also explore something more nuanced: the difference between being forced to make, cook, sew, clean, and perform domesticity—and freely choosing to make things by hand. Can activities once associated with control become creative and healing when they are reclaimed through choice and agency?

And because Tia has experienced a remarkable range of therapy, we talk about what she learned from CBT, EMDR, Brainspotting, and grief work, what each offered her, and what she believes actually helps people rebuild trust in themselves after trauma.

We end with one of my favorite ideas from our conversation: the phrase “I’m the type of person who…”—and what it means to begin creating an identity for yourself after spending years being told who you are supposed to be.

In this episode: Tia Levings, A Well-Trained Wife, trad wife culture, Ballerina Farm, the Duggar family, Yesteryear, Christian fundamentalism, religious trauma, high-control relationships, blogging, motherhood, women’s domestic labor, craft and creativity, trauma recovery, CBT, EMDR, Brainspotting, grief, identity, and learning to trust yourself again.

Tia's books are available here.

Learn more about Tia on her website and Instagram.

Lara Land-Wittich, MHC, hosts Beyond Trauma. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

What happens when we stop thinking of writing as something we do from the neck up and instead let the body have a voice?

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I’m joined by Johanna Franzel, biodynamic craniosacral therapist, teacher, and author, to explore Embodied Writing—a practice that creates a bridge between language and the body, and between the body and language. We talk about how writing from the body can bring us into real time, shifting our relationship with what is happening in the present moment rather than keeping us caught in old stories or familiar patterns.

Johanna shares how embodied writing can support people living with chronic illness, drawing from what she has learned through her own experience. We also explore why the goal of being “fixed” isn’t always the goal when it comes to mental health—and what becomes possible when we approach ourselves instead with permission, reverence, and curiosity.

We talk about the healing power of having our stories witnessed, what happens when we share our writing with others, and why practicing embodied writing in community can be so powerful. Johanna also leads us through an embodied writing practice that engages all of the senses, so have your journal ready and give yourself a few minutes to write along with us.

This is an episode about listening differently—to our bodies, our stories, and the wisdom that can emerge when we give ourselves permission to be exactly where we are.

Johanna's book, Write Yourself Home, is now available.

Learn more about Johanna on her website and Instagram.

Lara Land-Wittich, MHC, hosts Beyond Trauma. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

What if our impulse to help can sometimes get in the way of healing?

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I talk with Chelsea Haverly (she/her), LCSW-C about what becomes possible when we move beyond the verbal story and begin listening more closely to the body.

Chelsea brings together Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic therapy, and craniosacral work to help us understand trauma as something that lives not only in our thoughts and memories, but also in movement, sensation, relationship, and the nervous system.

We talk about the ways the body communicates things that may never make it into the verbal story—and why some trauma needs movement, touch, and attunement in ways that traditional talk therapy may not address. Chelsea also shares how this kind of work can be adapted for virtual therapy, including what therapists can do when touch or movement feels painful, frightening, or impossible for a client.

We explore the Five Element Theory and how it can offer another lens for understanding where a nervous system becomes stuck. Chelsea shares the first thing she recommends when movement feels unsafe, as well as questions we can ask ourselves to discover what kind of movement might actually support our nervous system.

For therapists, we talk about the tendency to turn therapy into a list of interventions: something to fix, assign, measure, or accomplish. Chelsea explains why this can inadvertently replicate aspects of the trauma response and why she doesn't give traditional homework. Instead, she offers something different between sessions.

We also step outside the individual therapy paradigm to ask a larger question: What happens when we understand our struggles as shaped not only by our individual histories, but by relationships, families, communities, culture, and the systems we live within?

Chelsea shares her understanding of the therapeutic relationship as inherently reparative, including the importance of rupture and repair. We discuss how to work with clients who have big goals without getting pulled into urgency or fixing, and how therapists can shift from primarily cognitive approaches toward more embodied ways of working.

And because therapists and other helpers need care, too, Chelsea offers simple nervous-system practices for people who tend to lead with their hearts, along with ideas for making our practices, businesses, and professional environments more trauma-informed.

We also talk about what trauma-informed personal training means—and why the principles of trauma-informed care can extend far beyond the therapy room.

Learn more about trauma-informed body work.

Chelsea's Website/Instagram

This episode is sponsored by My Therapy Flow. Therapy Flow transforms therapy practices with HIPAA-compliant marketing services and a custom CRM that tracks and follows up with leads automatically. Mention Beyond Trauma when you book your call and receive 50% your first three months with the Therapy Flow CRM.

Beyond Trauma is hosted by Lara Land-Wittich, MHC. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I sit down with award-winning trauma-informed educator, author, yoga trainer, and founder of Transcending Trauma Through Yoga, Zabie Yamasaki, for a conversation about burnout, boundaries, rest, and nervous system healing.

Many of us know we're exhausted, but instead of addressing the deeper causes of burnout, we reach for quick fixes: a day off, a vacation, a self-care ritual squeezed into an already packed schedule. Zabie invites us to look beyond temporary relief and explore the patterns that keep us living at a deficit.

Together, we discuss how we often borrow energy from tomorrow to get through today, waking up already depleted. We explore the role urgency plays in our lives, relationships, and healing journeys, and why learning to distinguish between our capability and our capacity is essential for long-term well-being.

Zabie shares how to recognize when a person, environment, or commitment may not be healthy for you, questions to ask yourself before taking on more, and why so many of us collapse at the end of the day rather than truly restore.

We also talk about creating spaces that support regulation, the ways we unintentionally bring the same frantic energy into our self-care practices, and why our nervous systems often need less—not more—to heal.

Perhaps most importantly, this conversation is a reminder that rest is not something we earn once we've reached our breaking point. We are worthy of rest before we're exhausted. We are worthy of celebrating ourselves in the middle of the process, not just at the finish line. And joy, as Zabie reminds us, is a practice.

Be sure to stay until the end for a beautiful compassion practice led by Zabie.

Zabie's new book, Protect Your Energy: A Gentle Guide to Nurture Your Nervous System, Cultivate Rest, and Honor Your Needs, is out now.

Learn more about Zabie's offerings on her website and Instagram.

This episode is sponsored by My Therapy Flow. Therapy Flow transforms therapy practices with HIPAA-compliant marketing services and a custom CRM that tracks and follows up with leads automatically. Mention Beyond Trauma when you book your call and receive 50% your first three months with the Therapy Flow CRM.

Beyond Trauma is hosted by Lara Land-Wittich, MHC. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I sit down with bestselling author, teacher, and spiritual guide Tracee Stanley to explore how ritual can help us create more spaciousness, presence, and meaning in our everyday lives.

Tracee is the author of the upcoming book Living Ritual: Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit, as well as the bestselling books Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self. Drawing from more than three decades of practice in Sri Vidya Tantra and the teachings of the Himalayan Masters, she shares practical ways to bring sacred practices into modern life—without adding another item to your to-do list.

Together, we discuss how to begin a meaningful spiritual practice and integrate it into even the busiest schedule. Tracee explains the surprising practice that can help you realize you have far more time available than you think, and why returning to the same small text, ritual, or practice over and over again is often more transformative than constantly seeking new information.

We also explore how to approach spiritual and personal growth without striving, performance, or attachment to outcomes. Tracee shares powerful insights on protecting your energy, setting boundaries around your time and attention, and cultivating emotional discernment in an increasingly overstimulating world.

Finally, we discuss the importance of reclaiming our senses as a pathway to intuition, wisdom, and perspective. By slowing down and reconnecting with our embodied experience, we can move beyond the urgency of needing answers right now and learn to trust the deeper guidance that emerges from within.

Preorder Living Ritual and receive free entry into Tracee's 16-day ritual circle.

Website/Instagram

This episode is sponsored by My Therapy Flow. Therapy Flow transforms therapy practices with HIPAA-compliant marketing services and a custom CRM that tracks and follows up with leads automatically. Mention Beyond Trauma when you book your call and receive 50% your first three months with the Therapy Flow CRM.

Beyond Trauma is hosted by Lara Land-Wittich, MHC. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

In a timely conversation following the Meta verdict and rising concern about technology’s mental health impact, I sit down with Shannon Algeo to explore what we call the death of friction — how smartphones, social media, and AI are reshaping human attachment, empathy, and psychological well-being.

We discuss how social norms have shifted—largely without our awareness—since the rise of the smartphone, and why the constant tether to digital devices dysregulates the nervous system, fragments memory, and leaves many people feeling strangely empty after online connection.

We unpack why talking to AI is not therapy, how technology platforms increasingly exploit the human attachment system, and what intentional practices can restore presence, embodiment, joy, and real connection in an algorithmic world.

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Shannon Algeo, AMFT, APCC is an American and Irish writer based in California. He is a psychotherapist, researcher, poet, Yoga Nidra teacher, and co-founder of We Human and the We Human Podcast (formerly SoulFeed). Shannon is the author of the books The Power in Your Hands: Liberate Yourself From Attachment to Technology and Trust Your Truth. He is on faculty at the Esalen Institute and the Kripalu Center, and leads digital liberation programs and offline retreats around the world that support people to reclaim their humanity, creativity, and attention in the digital age. Make sure to preorder his latest book: The Power in Your Hands

In this episode, I’m joined by Hannah Rama, LMHC, to explore the patterns of perfectionism and overfunctioning that many high-achieving women—especially those in helping professions—quietly carry.

Women who are capable, driven, and deeply committed to caring for others often find themselves taking on more and more responsibility. While these traits can lead to professional success and meaningful impact, they can also come at a significant emotional and physiological cost.

Hannah and I discuss how these patterns develop and the early experiences that can lead someone to feel their worth is tied to productivity, achievement, or constantly operating at 110%.

In this conversation, Hannah shares how she supports women clinically in:

• recognizing when the cost of overfunctioning has become too high

• learning to regulate the nervous system when burnout and overwhelm begin to build

• cultivating self-compassion and sustainable self-care without losing ambition or drive

• exploring the underlying experiences that shaped these patterns

She also offers specific nervous system regulation practices she recommends in her work, as well as the framework she uses to help high-functioning women create a healthier and more sustainable relationship with achievement.

This conversation will resonate with clinicians, helping professionals, and high-achieving women navigating perfectionism, burnout, and chronic overfunctioning.

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Website: https://www.true-north-therapy.com/

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I’m joined by Sarah Peyton to explore the transformative practice of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and how it invites us to see the “flow of life” moving through each person.

We discuss why communication becomes so difficult when nervous system reactivity, attachment patterns, and unmet longings come into play. Sarah explains how self-compassion helps us stay grounded in moments of conflict—and why recognizing the freeze response as a natural survival strategy is essential.

Together we unpack:

• How holding the question of another’s beautiful longings changes how we listen
• The role of nervous system safety in helping others hear us
• Clean emotional words versus blame-based language
• How attachment style influences vulnerability and communication patterns
• How to navigate conversations with people we deeply disagree with—without losing connection

If you’ve ever wondered how to stay loving and regulated in hard conversations, this episode offers both neuroscience and heart.

Sarah Peyton, author, Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer and neuroscience educator, integrates constellations, brain science and the use of resonant language to heal trauma with exquisite and warm gentleness. Sarah teaches and lectures internationally and is the author of four books on relational neuroscience and self-compassion: Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing, the companion Your Resonant Self Workbook: From Self-sabotage to Self-care, and Affirmations for Turbulent Times: Resonant Words to Soothe Body and Mind, and The Antiracist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook, co-authored with Roxy Manning, PhD. Find her at www.sarahpeyton.com.

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Intro & Outro Music by Daniel Zaitchik